When Brittany Willeford and more than 30 others appeared at City Hall last week to protest budget cuts to programs for disabled teens, they got the attention of Mayor Kevin Johnson and council members who hope the programs can be saved. “We have to find a way and be creative,” Johnson said at a press conference Tuesday. “If there’s a way we can resurrect it, that’d be awesome for everybody.” At stake are recreation and social programs that serve approximately 3,000 disabled teens and young adults each year through Access Leisure. The current program budget is $146,000, and that’s being cut from the 2012-13 budget, Program Director Annie Desalerno said Wednesday. “I didn’t know a whole l

In an effort to help stimulate the local economy and encourage growth of area businesses, the City of Sacramento now offers a local business preference for city contracting opportunities. The incentive program gives a 2 percent bidding preference to local companies located within the city or unincorporated county of Sacramento. In addition to this new program, the city has also helped to streamline the contracting process through contracting changes and technology implementation. “We understand that our local business community’s viability is essential to an economic turnaround,” Jim Rinehart, Economic Development Director. “This local business preference encourages and supports local ven

Public Encouraged to complete online budget exercise The City of Sacramento released an online budget exercise that asks, “What should the role of City government be?” The brief budget exercise will provide the community an opportunity to share with the City what their priorities are in the following areas: - Economic Vitality - Healthy, Sustainable Environment - Leisure, Cultural and Social Opportunities - Reliable Infrastructure and Effective Mobility - Safe Community - Youth Opportunities and Education   The budget exercise results will be presented to the City Council during budget hearings in May and June. The budget exercise can be found on the front page of the City’s website at

It’s that time of year again when protesters line up outside City Hall, public comment gets intense – and sometimes colorful – and council meetings drag on into the night: City Hall released the 2012-13 city budget Thursday. The proposed budget includes the elimination of nearly 286 city positions and – unlike last year – does not include use of the general fund “economic uncertainty” reserves, according to a city press release Thursday. “This is not the budget I had hoped to recommend to address next year’s structural budget deficit,” City Manager John Shirey said in the release. The City Council will begin to address the budget in public hearings May 1. “Our big focus now is the budg

To coincide with Valentine’s Day and the month of love, today the City of Sacramento launched the first ever What Do You Love About Sacramento? campaign. The promotion is designed to inspire people to recognize what the Capitol of California has going for it. Recently, the Mayor and Councilmembers were asked what they love about Sacramento. Watch the launch video below or at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7STcmZch5g. Now it is the community’s turn to answer that question in three words or less. Participants are asked to creatively respond to the question “What do you love about Sacramento?”, upload the video to YouTube, and then send the link to the CityExpress@cityofsacramento.org

The city is spending more than it is bringing in, and even though that’s normal for this time of the year, officials need to make changes to keep spending under control and keep the budget on target. According to the mid-year budget report presented to the City Council Tuesday, expenditures are at 50 percent of projections, and revenues are at 36 percent – about 14 percent less than anticipated. This is typical for this point in the fiscal year, Finance Director Leyne Milstein told council members Tuesday – but adjustment is still necessary. “Without these recommendations, we will not be able to balance our budget,” Milstein said. It’s not all bad news, though. The 2010-11 fiscal year

As Sacramento gears up to face a $16.5 million budget gap in the next fiscal year, consultants from Colorado met with City Council members to outline a new approach to budgeting that focuses less on dollar amounts and more on top city priorities. The council budget workshop held Tuesday at the main branch of the Sacramento Public Library was designed to help council members refine fiscal priorities for the city and discuss ways to reshape the budget process. Significant cuts to resolve a $39 million budget gap last year resulted in layoffs from the police force and rolling brownouts at city fire stations – actions that brought weeks of public outcry at City Council meetings. The city ch

Tuesday on Capitol Public Radio’s “Insight” program, I sat down with host David Watts Barton and Sacramento Bee editorial board member Foon Rhee to discuss the Checks and Balances Act of 2012 – more commonly known as the “executive mayor” or “strong mayor” initiative. The mayor’s office rolled out the latest version of the strong mayor initiative Dec. 21 by a coalition of supporters led by Mayor Kevin Johnson’s chief of staff, Kunal Merchant. The issue was scheduled to be on the agenda for City Council discussion Tuesday, and Johnson said he is hopeful that council members will put the initiative on the June ballot. Rhee pointed out that Tuesday’s meeting was the 16th time the issue has

On January 7, 2012, Sacramento city staff held a public meeting about the newest proposal to change the city charter, the “Checks and Balances Act of 2012.” However, this public meeting was not announced to the general public—instead it was directed at a small group of neighborhood leaders. I found out about the meeting via the chair of the Midtown Neighborhood Association, who received an email on December 27: From: Raihane Dalvi Date: December 27, 2011 2:19:11 PM PST To: Raihane Dalvi Subject: Checks and Balances Act of 2012 Dear Neighborhood Leader, I'm writing to request your participation in an important discussion before the city of Sacramento. As you may know, a broad coaliti

Sacramento City Council members had their hands full this year – from balancing the budget to redrawing district lines to a citizen uprising that found its way to the doors of City Hall. Here’s the city government year in review. CITY MANAGER DRAMA The year started off with interim city manager Gus Vina not being promoted to the open city manager spot. Vina replaced previous city manager Ray Kerrige when Kerrige resigned in February 2010. Vina resigned two months later – just a few weeks before the budget was due to the City Council. He later became the city manager of Encinitas. The City Council was criticized for making decisions about the city manager position in closed sessions bef

After the first quarter of the fiscal year, city revenues are only about half of what was projected, but city finance officials said they aren’t ready to panic yet. The negative balance for the city budget is not just related to lower-than-anticipated revenues – a large part of the imbalance is due to greater-than-anticipated expenditures. The $812 million city budget is running negative at the moment – “typical” for the first quarter of the fiscal year, according to the most recent report from the city Finance Department. The first quarter financial report will be presented to the City Council Tuesday. Of the six main sources of revenue for the city – property tax, utility user tax, sa

Sacramento County and City are working together with generous donors to coordinate winter shelter services for the homeless. “It’s imperative that the County, City and private interests work together to maximize available resources in preparation for winter shelter needs,” said County Supervisor Phil Serna. “We hope that individuals, businesses, labor organizations and others will continue to donate, volunteer and otherwise support the efforts of our shelter providers and our local faith community.” At last night’s Sacramento City Council meeting, the City Council approved $100,000 for the homeless motel voucher program. In addition, the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, which

On September 6, 2011 City Council approved new Council district boundaries for the City of Sacramento. The new Council district boundaries will be effective October 6, 2011. The City has developed a tool available to the community that allows individuals to enter any address within the City limits and get the current district and the new district for that address. The tool is available on the City’s main website at http://www.cityofsacramento.org/. A map of the new districts and the staff report with the adopted ordinance are also available on the City’s redistricting website at www.cityofsacramento.org/redistricting.  

Now that a new city manager has taken the helm, Interim City Manager Bill Edgar is ready for new things. But “greener pastures” is not necessarily where Edgar says he’s headed. “Plans for me aren’t really set,” Edgar said in an interview last week. “I have plenty to do, so retirement isn’t exactly in my future.” Edgar took over as interim city manager after the previous interim city manager, Gus Vina, resigned in April. When the City Council appointed Edgar to the position, he was joined by Betty Masuoka as assistant interim city manager. Together, Edgar and Masuoka took on the responsibilities of preparing a difficult city budget and navigating some tough union contracts. Edgar’s role

It would be fair to say that Sacramento’s new city manager, John Shirey, has hit the ground running. That’s a good thing, too, because he has a lot of ground to cover if he’s going to meet his goal of making Sacramento “the best managed city in California.” His first official day with the city was Sept. 1, and he’s spent the first week on the job jumping right in to the work ahead, Shirey said in an interview Friday. “I’m in a 90-day period of goal-setting,” Shirey said, “and understanding what this organization needs and what the City Council is willing to do as a group.” Shirey said that means putting together a specific plan and sharing with city staff and council exactly how he want

City staff members want to fix Sacramento’s budget problems by revamping the city’s current organizational structure – and they want to do it by February. Northern California still struggles to recover from one of the worst recessions in more than 75 years, and the city of Sacramento has been hit especially hard. Interim City Manager Bill Edgar reminded council members Tuesday of the reality of the city’s fiscal situation: A budget that is $39 million less than it was the prior year; 141 city employee layoffs, including 41 sworn police officers, and a $26 million structural imbalance expected to extend into 2016. “The impacts (of the current budget structure) have been noticeable and si

Sacramento’s new city manager will get a 16 percent increase in salary over the previous city manager, making him the highest-paid in city history and the first to receive a labor contract. John Shirey’s three-year contract, which includes a $258,000 base salary was approved by the City Council with a 7-2 vote Tuesday. According to the staff report on the contract, Shirey’s annual salary is within the city’s current salary pay range of $187,357-$281,035 for the position. The staff report also notes that Shirey’s benefit package is essentially the same as for city charter officers such as city attorney and city clerk, with two exceptions: Shirey will pay his own 7 percent contribution to

John Shirey will take the job as Sacramento’s newest city manager Sept. 1 after being confirmed by the City Council in an 8-1 vote in closed session Thursday night. Mayor Kevin Johnson, who was the only “no” vote, said he and the council are “very excited” to have Shirey on board. He added at a post-meeting press conference that he and the council unanimously agree that Shirey is an honest person and the proper amount of vetting was done before hiring him. Shirey was called to the podium to make a few quick remarks during the regularly scheduled City Council meeting. “To be able to assume the position of city manager is a great highlight for me in my life and my career,” Shirey said.

The search for a new city manager – which began nearly five months ago when Gus Vina resigned as interim city manager – may be coming to an end this week. John Shirey, current executive director of the California Redevelopment Association, was recently named as a front-runner for the position, and now it appears that a finalized contract between Shirey and the city is in the works. The City Council will be discussing the city manager position in a closed session Tuesday afternoon, however, city spokeswoman Amy Williams said that they do not anticipate any sort of announcement after that session. “The city is currently negotiating with the preferred candidate,” Williams said. However, “n

California Redevelopment Association Executive Director John Shirey emerged as the front-runner Friday for Sacramento’s city manager position. “Right now, we’re going through the process (of hiring a city manager),” said City Councilman Darrell Fong. “He is definitely the strong candidate, and he is definitely the focus.” The council has not made a decision, though there was a closed-session meeting Monday in which the city manager search was the topic. The city has been without a city manager since Ray Kerridge resigned in March, 2010. In the meantime, both Gus Vina and a former city manager, Bill Edgar, served as interim city managers. Edgar is currently serving as interim city manage